WHAT—you may well ask—is THIS????
Well, I have the answer. In fact, it is an answer I have been seeking most of my adult life. This is a Silicate. Or a silicate creature, or silicate monster. I’m not exactly sure what to call it. But I do feel pretty sure that I’ve seen it before.
My story begins when I was a wee child (well, probably about eight years old), and one fine Saturday afternoon at my Aunt Lillian’s house, all of my somewhat older cousins were heading out to the movies to see a HORROR film, and I did not want to be left out of the fun, so (the way I remember it) I begged and begged to be able to go see this movie with the older kids, and for some reason my parents allowed me—ME, the scaredy-cat wimp who became unbearably anxious about the strange woman known as “Tooth Fairy” coming into my room and messing around under my pillow while I was sleeping—yes, they allowed me to go to my first horror film, and…I tell you…IT SCARED THE LIVING***HECK*** OUT OF ME!
This was the first time I remember being truly scared. At least, it is among my strongest memories from my childhood. Of course, despite how strong the memory of the FEELING of being scared has always been, over time, the details have grown fuzzy. What was that movie that scared me so much? What was the title? What was it about?
All I could remember was some dead guy lying on a table that seemed terribly disfigured, and some kind of creature that was full of chicken noodle soup. Russ is always very good about helping me unearth historical incidents of popular culture, and we have uncovered quite a few mysteries together. Well, one day several weeks ago we were talking again about my childhood memory, and he went online and found this picture. At the same time, I was uncovering a movie still of the dead guy on the table with the disfigured face (I will spare you that image) and all at once I had my answer:
ISLAND OF TERROR!!!!!!
Also known as “Night of the Silicates” when they showed it in Great Britain. 1966. Peter Cushing. Radioactive creatures that suck the bones out of people’s bodies. If you go to YouTube you can see clips, including the one particularly graphic scene (look for: “extended unrated”) of a creature grabbing Peter Cushing’s arm and another guy taking an axe and (inexplicably) chopping off his hand (rather than chopping away at the Silicate creature), with blood squirting out everywhere. Oh yes. Pretty strong stuff for the mid-sixties.
Ahhh…
Well, it feels good to finally have all that cleared up. I’m contemplating buying a DVD of the movie so I can watch it again, and share it with Russ, who somehow missed this particular gem. I wonder how I would find it, after all these years. Would it still seem scary…or just hokey?
What is is?
AH HA! I knew what it was even before I read your posting. Well not really know what it was , but remember the same icky yucky movie. Back in the 60’S that was horror! It was at that point that I realized the “magic” of movies which lead to my realization that I could do that also and I could do it better. I guess you could say that movie created my creativity. Who knew.
Terry